Issues Among Dancers With Negative Body Images

Dancers are constantly being influenced by their peers and role models to look a certain way. They are comparing themselves to others all the time in order to perfect every detail in their chaining. Those details can be as common as correcting the technical aspects within certain movements to something as complex as seeing “errors” within their own bodies. These “errors” are the flaws a dancer finds within their own body that they dwell on daily until they find away to get rid of it. This crisis with dancers seeing their bodies — their canvases — in such a negative way could all be change if they were represented more among companies they admire and watch all the time. Dance companies, such as the New York City Ballet, tend to cater to only one type of audience which can be harmful to the dancers they are trying to influence.

The New York City Ballet is one of the most respected ballet companies in the United States. Their training program, the School of American Ballet, is seen as one of the most prestigious places for one’s child to train at and when excepted to the program their is no going back to any chance at a normal life. The SAB style of training consists of starting a dancers training from a very young age to ensure that they can see shaped into their idea of what a ballet dancer should be. This is both beneficial and detrimental for the dancers in training. They will get an earlier/longer chance to perfect their skills but, in return, they have a higher chance of acquiring a negative body image. This can also be harmful for those not in the training program. Seeing a company that only hires people who have a tall stature with long limps and short, slim torsos has the ability to make other dancers feel like they don’t have a place. If ballet companies like the New York City Ballet could consider how the lack of diversity (in body types) within their dancers influences the rest of the dance community, we would see many more dancers with opportunities to dance professionally along with higher self-esteems.

In some modern dance companies, such as ODC Dance, you can see the diversity of body types throughout all of the dancers. Everyone in the company is strong and in shape, but not on dancer has the same body type. Some of the dancers are very petite while others are much taller; some of the dancers have more curves than the others who have a slimmer build. Overall, the company represents multiple body types in a fit structure. They don’t try to make people conform to their style of dancer, but their style of dance instead. This is the mind-set all companies should have for their dancers. It allows more dancers to be represents throughout the dance community and give more people the inspiration to express themselves. Without the exclusion of certain body types within companies, dancers will not feel the need to be as hard on themselves and their bodies. Instead, they will focus on their training and perfect the techniques they find the most challenging.

With companies putting more effort into having a variety in body types among their dancers, we would see a huge increase in self-esteem among the entire dance community. It is important for society to encourage a healthy lifestyle but not put people down who don’t seem to be living up to those standards. We need to unite as a community and love our bodies because they are our paint brushes; they’re all we have.